Inspired by his wife, Elizabeth Holloway Marston, as well as their partner in polyamory, Olive Byrne, Wonder Woman’s super-agile, super-strong Amazon princess character and back-story were created by William Moulton Marston–a well-respected, Harvard-educated psychologist who was brought on at National Periodicals and All-American Publications (later: D.C. Comics) as a consultant in order to legitimize the educational potential of comic books to skeptical adults and a censorious public. Wonder Woman first appeared in the December 1941 issue of All Star Comics and has been a Justice League staple ever since.

However, Wonder Woman’s defining characteristics and comic book story-lines have continually changed to mirror prevailing beliefs about women and their ability to be heroes–and showing that change over time is one of the things Wonder Woman!TheUntold Story of American Superheroines does so well. As Jen Stuller (author of Ink-Stained Amazons and Cinematic Warriors: Superwomen in Modern Mythology) explains early in the documentary:

“In 1941 women had to step out of the private sphere and into the public sphere because we were at war. Women made planes and flew the planes and they became super heroines.”

“But as soon as the war ended, all of the guys wanted their jobs back and the women were sent back to the kitchen, and there was a mass amnesia and no one remembered that women had ever been strong.”

This shift in roles is reflected in the pages of Wonder Woman’s stories. Our first impressions of Diana of Themyscira are of a chain-busting, super-agile, Axis-fighting, invisible-airplane-piloting, crime fighter who is attracted to (but not defined by) her love interest, United States Intelligence Officer Steve Trevor. Time passes, however, and by 1970, this virtuous, heroic demi-goddess has been stripped of her superpowers in order to remain in “Man’s World.” At this juncture, she is redrawn to become boutique-clothing-store owner Diana Prince. This incarnation of Diana becomes a martial artist under the tutelage of a wiser male mentor, I Ching, and a fair number of the comics covers from these dis-empowered years see Diana bereft and crying.

SxSW Wonder Woman Pedicab Driver. Photo credit: Andrea Schwalm

Enter feminist spokeswoman Gloria Steinem, who placed Wonder Woman on the cover of the first issue of Ms. Magazine in July 1972 and badgered D.C. editor Dennis O’Neal relentlessly until he ultimately agreed to give Wonder Woman back her powers and matriarchal back-story. All right, I’ll give you what you want, O’Neal reputedly tells Steinem in the film, and I’ll throw in Nubia, her “black sister.” Now will you just leave me alone???

Not coincidentally, by 1975 we have Wonder Woman, the television show, by 1976, The Bionic Woman and Charlie’s Angels. This was paradigm-changing: women could be protagonists, could bring in huge numbers of viewers, could make television stations very large sums of money…

Even after all of this, I can hear the groans of the uninitiated: Is it really necessary or a even a good idea to put Wonder Woman in a historical context? She is only a fictional character, after all. Don’t we all have better things to do with our time–stockings to darn, pot pies to bake? Why–as Wonder Woman! director Kristy Guevara-Flanagan posits–would women need to consider the consequences of being seen “as heroes at the center of their own journey?”

There are some striking parallels between post-World War II America and our contemporary cultural skirmishes. Just as in post-war America, today there is clearly an organized attempt at re-framing and diminishing women’s professional opportunities afoot. By legally removing women’s ability to make decisions about their own bodies and reproductive health, politicians permanently alter the story arcs of our lives, take from us the ability to be the author, engineer, and main character of our own life-stories.

Writing for The American Scholar in 1940, Wonder Woman’s creator, William Moulton Marston, once opined:

Not even girls want to be girls so long as our feminine archetype lacks force, strength, and power.

But we are not powerless in the current fracas. We can fight back with our dollars and our voices and we can arm our foot soldiers with knowledge and perspective. Are you a regular Con attendee? Write to those Con coordinators and tell them that you want Wonder Woman! The Untold Story of American Superheroines shown at their Con this year. Contact your local performing arts space or independent film theater and tell them you will show up with all of your friends to see this movie. It is that moving and that worthwhile.

“You can’t be what you can’t see,” Marie Wilson, founder of The White House Project, explains in this powerful film. Yet the media preaches that a woman’s value is found in beauty and sexuality rather than in her leadership abilities. What can be done? This revealing documentary has some answers. It premieres Oct. 20th at 9/8 central on OWN. Filmmakers suggest hosting a house party to watch and discuss it together. The film’s site is packed with resources and ideas for empowering youth. Here are some some of the issues raised by Miss Representation.

Women hold only 3% of clout positions in the mainstream media (telecommunications, entertainment, publishing and advertising).

Women comprise 7% of directors and 13% of film writers in the top 250 grossing films.

The United States is 90th in the world in terms of women in national legislatures.

Women hold 17% of the seats in the House of Representatives (the equivalent body in Rwanda is 56.3% female).

Women are merely 3% of Fortune 500 CEOs.

About 25% of girls will experience teen dating violence.

The number of cosmetic surgical procedures performed on youth 18 or younger more than tripled from 1997 to 2007.

Among youth 18 and younger, liposuctions nearly quadrupled between 1997 and 2007 and breast augmentations increased nearly six-fold in the same 10-year period.